Projects and books by contemporary American writer of A Religion of One's Own, Gospel: The Book of Matthew, Care of the Soul.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Real mystics open up to what is really real reality

Today the Oprah Winfrey Network on Huffington Post shares Anyone Can Be A Mystic ― Here's How, an excerpt from Thomas Moore's new book, A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World published by Gotham Books (Penguin Group USA). The selection includes:

"Religion begins in the sensation that your life makes sense within a larger one, that you and the animals have a bond, that the trees and rocks and rivers are to the body of the world as your bones and hair and bloodstream are to your body. You understand, at least in some primal way, that your happiness depends on the happiness of the beings around you. You may even realize, ultimately, that your soul participates in the world's soul.

If you go deep enough into yourself, you will come up against mysterious creative forces. You can't know yourself completely, and you may realize, again, as mystics have pointed out, that some of your problems stem from your resistance against that deep, unknown source of vitality. If you could get out of the way, who knows what you could become? The divine creator not only makes a world but also creates a self."

Why Barque: Thomas Moore?

"What I'm trying to do is say lighten up and let life flow through you, and be on the waves as they go up and down. For me, a great image in mythology is
Tristan of Tristan and Isolde. He's out there on a little boat without an oar, without a rudder, on the Irish sea . . . You float your way. You drift. The essence
of my approach is to be extravagantly accepting and forgiving of yourself and others. Ride the waves and let life take you where it has good things for you." - Thomas Moore